The court thus had to determine whether it should review the evidence Leroy sought in camera because it was potentially admissible or whether no such review was necessary because it was inadmissible under Utah's physician and mental health therapist-patient privilege. That privilege, contained in Utah Rule of Evidence 506, states that if information is communicated in confidence and for the purpose of diagnosing or treating a patient, the patient has the privilege, during the course of the patient's life, to refuse to disclose and to prevent any other person from disclosing the information transmitted, the diagnosis/treatment, etc.

The privilege, however, has a few exceptions, such as 506(d)(1), which states that no privilege exists under Rule 506 when the patient's condition is an element of a claim or defense. Thus, for instance, if the plaintiff is claiming severe neck injuries after a car crash with the defendant, the plaintiff's statements to her doctor about the extent of her neck pain and the doctor's diagnosis would not be privileged because the defendant would be entitled to show that the plaintiff was exaggerating or making up her neck injury.

The prosecution, however, claimed that (1) because motive is not an element of any crime, it cannot be an element of any defense, and (2) that previous Utah cases had found, sub silentio, that impeachment evidence cannot constitute an element of a defense under any circumstances. The court rejected these arguments and held that it would review the evidence in camera.

In rejecting the prosecution's second argument, the court found that the previous cases cited by the prosecution found that evidence which generally impeaches the credibility of a witness cannot constitute an element of a defense; they did not find that evidence which indicates that a witness has a specific reason to lie in the case at hand cannot constitute an element of a criminal defense.

This distinction also makes sense to me because it is consistent with how courts treat these different types of impeachment evidence in other cases. Under Federal Rule of Evidence 608 and state counterparts, extrinsic evidence is inadmissible when a witness is being impeached generally, but extrinsic evidence is admissible when a witness is being shown to have a specific reason, such as bias against the defendant, to lie in the case at hand.